California Rob Bronta and Governor Gavin Newsom He filed a lawsuit on Monday against President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to avoid federal and deploy the California National Guard to help crush the protests against the president’s mass deportation campaign in Los Angeles.

The demand defies the invocation of Trump of a provision of the United States Armed Services Code (10 USC 12406) that allows the limited presidential deployment of the National Guard troops. Trump has federalized and deployed 2,000 members of the California National Guard to help immigration and customs customs officers to reduce work sites, schools and churches to gather and deport undocumented immigrants.

California argues that the use of Trump of this provision, which has never been invoked in this way, is illegal for numerous reasons, including that Trump could not issue his orders through the state governor, as apparently required by law, which promotes the state of use of his national guard “to protect herself and her citizens” and that he violates the role of the Governor’s California.

This provision has been previously invoked together with the insurrection law, a series of legal provisions that authorize the President to deploy military forces in the country in certain limited situations. But the president has not invoked the authorities under the insurrection law, but is based solely on this provision. Demand maintains that this novel use exceeds the power of the federal government and violates the tenth amendment.

The National Guard soldiers are outside the Federal Building Edward R. Roybal in Los Angeles on Sunday.
The National Guard soldiers are outside the Federal Building Edward R. Roybal in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg through Getty Images

“Let me be clear: there is no invasion. There is no rebellion. The president is trying to manufacture chaos and crisis in the field for his own political ends,” said Bonta in a statement published on the demand. “Federalize the California National Guard is an abuse of the president’s authority under the law, and not one that we take lightly.”

For a president to invoke this provision of the Code of Armed Services, one of the three conditions must be met. There must be a “real or threatened foreign invasion”, a “real or threatened rebellion” against the authority of the United States government “or” the president cannot with the regular forces of executing the laws of the United States. “

In addition, the law in question requires that “[o]Rders “to the members of the National Guard when this law is invoked” will be issued through the governors of the states. “Trump has not coordinated any of those orders to the governor’s office, said Newsom, Democrat, on Sunday.

“There is a protocol. There is a process. He didn’t care,” said Newsom in MSNBC.

Trump’s effort to federalize the California National Guard occurred after ICE officers raided a home in June 6 to arrest alleged undocumented immigrants looking for work there. The protests exploded in response to the raid in ICE’s workplace and grew as ICE and the Los Angeles Police Department deployed tear gas and fired rubber bullets from the protesters, the press and the spectators trapped in traffic.

The protests have been mostly peaceful, and the officials responsible for enforcing the LAPD law and the State have declared that they do not need national guard troops to respond.